Monthly Archive for January, 2013

: January, 2013

The best manner by which to deal with the issue of legal marijuana is to provide context to the meaning of “legal.” The “legality” of marijuana must be addressed in terms that define the movement of the drug from the source to the street, or in this case, from the land to the lip. …

In a three-part installment of Baker Institute Viewpoints that starts today, experts examine possible regulatory frameworks for legalized marijuana. Leading off for Viewpoints is guest writer Tom Heddleston, Ph.D., whose dissertation examined the formation and development of the medical marijuana movement in California.

Colorado and Washington are preparing to embark on a bold new approach to cannabis by deviating from the hallowed path of prohibition. In light of the erratic approach that federal law enforcement has taken to medical cannabis over the past three years, this is a daunting task. Luckily, both laws are very specific in spelling out what legislatures, governors and state agencies are required to do. Past lessons from the regulation of alcohol and medical cannabis also serve to light the way.

Let me be up front: I like Hillary Clinton. She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s ambitious — all important attributes of success in public life. As secretary of state, Clinton has advanced policies that I consider wise (the “reset” with Russia) and unwarranted (the intervention in Libya). But she has always done so with energy and skill.

This is an important point. One standard of success for any secretary of state is surely her or his effectiveness in promoting an administration’s foreign policy agenda. By that standard, Clinton’s performance in office has been exemplary, whatever my disagreement with that agenda.

In the second of a series of blogs leading up to the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 19, Baker Institute fellow Joe Barnes asks, “What are we to make of the plethora of justifications for the war?” The first blog in the series, “Learning the lessons of the Iraq War,” is available here.…

In a recent Small Wars Journal op-ed, Nathan Jones, the Baker Institute’s Alfred C. Glassell III Postdoctoral Fellow in Drug Policy, presents an overview of Mexico’s drug policies as the country transitions to new leadership under President Enrique Peña Nieto. While the new administration is touting proposed security reforms to combat violent drug cartels, Jones notes that there are more similarities than differences with the policies of former President Felipe Calderon. …